Editor Interview: Dithering Chaps

Poetry chapbooks

We're big fans of Long Poem Magazine, Acumen, Orbis.
Prototype is a publisher we admire greatly.

Personally... Anne Carson, Angie Estes, Ahren Warner, Caleb Kraces are the kind of writers I love.
But poetry has such a varied cast of characters and I'm always open to new voices and modes.

Our USP is that we give personal feedback (around 200-400 words) on each submission, whether we longlist the submission or not, focusing on positive aspects we have admired in the poet's work. We also like to feel we're in the sweet spot between pamphlets (< 30 pages) and full collections (>80 pages) - our chapbooks so far are around 40-60 pages...(but we'll go longer or shorter if we fall in love with your work!)

We're looking for thematically cohesive sequences, so that's something to consider. Then select ten pages that best showcase your voice and poetics...

We ask for a short 'Treatment' explaining the vision behind the collection - so a zinger summary really helps. Otherwise, we like poets to send ten pages as they would wish them to be read - don't try to cram in extra poems on the page - white space can be just as important as the text in a well-balanced poetry book.

You can't really get it wrong with us. As we say on our website:
Don’t panic!
We know the submissions process can be daunting. Complying with each publisher’s requirements can feel like a minefield! For us, the key thing is the quality of your writing. Of course, it helps us a lot if you send us exactly what we have asked for, but don’t panic if you miss something out - we’ll still give your writing the consideration it deserves.

It's always really helpful to know their publication history - links to writers websites or performances on social media can be useful too.
On the other hand, we are also open to submissions from poets who have not been published previously. Indeed, one of our three publications a year will be a poet who has not previously been published in a personal collection greater than pamphlet length. If you are in this category, you will have two bites at the cherry for one submission fee.

We read each ten-page submission at least twice, ideally with a month between readings. We often find that a piece we were lukewarm about first time round really sings on a second read-through...

We read twice, longlist all poets that meet our criteria (basically, being longlisted means we would be happy to publish your work). We then produce a shortlist of five, from which we choose a single poet from each submission period for publication. Shortlisting involves our editorial team (Gena and David) reading each piece on the longlist again and comparing our rankings. (We often see eye to eye, but we're open to the possibility that one only of us will be passionate about a particular poet).

We're very 'customer'-focused so try to respond to emails or submissions within 24 hours. So, in that sense we're always on call. Depending on the volume of submissions, we allocate reading mornings to clear our backlogs and (our USP) and draft our 200-400 word responses to each submission.
(In the background, we are working throughout the year with the poets we have chosen for publication, commenting on drafts, typesetting, working with our cover designer, organising launches, attending poetry open mics and festivals, and promoting our work via social media...)

This will depend on the first full submission we see.
In some cases, we are very light touch - if the poems are perfect, we don't want to mess with them. In other cases, the submission may need significant reworking - we love suggesting a through-line or ordering that makes the sequence sing. In other cases still, the suggestion of a better collection title might be our main contribution!!

Yes. We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Poetry Book Award, Forward Prizes and the Rubery Awards.
Our latest publication, Helen Kay's 'It Was Never About the Kingfisher' has been shortlisted for the Rubery Poetry Award (as of July 2025) and we're keeping our fingers crossed on that one...